Cobb is my second middle name. I am Michael David Cobb Bowen. Most people don't have two middle names. But it is a conservative thing and a tradition in my family to have middle names. To have two, I suppose is double, and Cobb is definitely the most conservative part of my name. So when I decided to blog from an Old School Conservative point of view and yet keep it more personal than ideological I went with Cobb.

Lots of people call me Cobb, and that's OK. It is my name.

Cobb is the name of the blog. I don't speak of myself in the third person as Cobb, I only speak of Cobb, the blog.

 Not only has the black monolith been broken, so has the political solidarity of 'the' black community. I see it this way. Those who have sought to inherit the mantle of the black political vanguard, ostensibly the 'Talented Tenth' have split into three camps.

The majority camp is the Liberal Left. They are aligned with Democrats and Greens. They are about 60%. The majority of blacks vote with them. The second camp is the Progressive Independent camp. They tend to be unaligned. They are about 25% The third camp is the Conservative camp who are aligned with Republicans and Libertarians. They are about 15%.

The purpose of Cobb is threefold. First and foremost it is to satisfy my craving to write and engage with everybody far beyond the contexts that everyday life provides. I am a writer and I love to write.

Secondly, it is to address a political agenda.

Thirdly Cobb addresses a cultural agenda.

I try to exemplify in a personal and analytical fashion, the orientation of black Conservative thinking in my generation. While I am a bit unusual as a writer, I think of my situation within America as fairly representative of a typical upper middle class black American suburban family. I think that the distance between mainstream conservatism and black conservatism is short.

In this personal mode of expression, I seek to break down stereotypes about who Conservatives are and how they come to support their ideological positions and I discuss in a Socratic dialog the issues of the day.

Additionally, I do so with particular care and respect for black Progressive politics. I seek to make the differences clear and to talk about the mistakes of Progressivism. As for the black Left, I attempt to keep my disdain from making me tell lies about them, but much of the respect is gone.

With regard to black politics, Cobb is something of a Talented Tenth / Old School project. I think of my audience as all folks who are particularly interested in the intersection of culture and politics and particularly the evolution of black politics in the post-Jim Crow era of American history. I am doing my share to advocate towards an organic black conservative politics in American life.

 Cobb is not about changing or improving race relations. If you can't get along with other ethnics that's your problem. Cobb is not 'for blacks only' it is open source black thought straight from this horse's mouth. If you can't read English, you will find yourself severely handicapped. Cobb is not sponsored by any ideological group. It's syndicated by blog aggregators. Cobb does not coddle. Cobb is not everything about Michael Bowen, it's a project. It had a beginning and it will end. Cobb is not afraid to use profanity. Cobb is not for kids. And Cobb is not Boohab.

 The Old School is a somewhat mythical orientation of conservative black culture and politics. You know it when you see it. The Old School is Christian, it is family oriented, it is unapologetic and bold, it is organic and self-sufficient. It takes little for granted and is ready to go down swinging. It is deeply American and deeply black. It is strong and proud, stubborn and graceful. I think of it engrained in the values and person of my grandparents who beat polio and got optimistically married during the Great Depression. The Old School includes but is not limited
to the Talented Tenth. Whereas the Tenth is on a noble mission, the Old School tends to mind it's own business.

 Black is to African American as Catholic is to Christian. Black is a flavor. African American is a demographic description. Black has meaning, subtlety and context. African American is just a huge bunch of undifferentiated people of African descent.

 Blackfolks are folks who call themselves black. Whitefolks are folks who call themselves white. I am not trying to be demographically accurate or politically correct. I'm just speaking about average Americans with an average amount of racial consciousness who know they fit into one or the other bucket.

 Aggregation is the black dream of the beloved community in the upper and upper middle classes. It is the purposeful establishment of a pro-black old money Establshishment in the tradition of American money, philanthropy and social exclusivity. It is definitely a Talented Tenth dream.

The 'Aggregate Community' is the next evolution of the Talented Tenth. They will be those who, for better or worse, take control of the legacy of African American history and life. I think the maintenance of this aspect of black history is at risk because of the failure of many African Americans to accurately represent the Old School.

Americans tend to speak about the status of groups of people in statistical terms in order to introduce themselves to subjects concerning them. This is troublesome for two reasons. On the one hand it traffics in stereotypes and reverse-stereotypes about in-groups and out-groups, but does not deal with causality or individuals. It therefore cheapens the quality of discussion and sets up litmus tests and glass ceilings and false dichotomies. Secondly it does not begin to approach with respect to which the dynamic in question is transient. It goes against the principle of discovery.

For these reasons I find sociology to be a discipline that warrants suspicion, the same kind of suspicion economics warrants. However I find that economists tend to be a bit less dogmatic and more self-deprecating in their predictions than sociologists. That is because I believe economists have a great deal more accurate and detailed data than sociologists and thus realize how contingent their models are on complexities beyond reckoning.

 Sherwood Forest is a metaphor for the less than civilized parts of the black diaspora and of the world in general. It is a place where untoward behavior is the norm and where. as Slick Rick would say "This type of shit happens every day."

The proper attitude to have towards Sherwood Forest and its denizens is benign contempt, for just beyond the edge of the woods is civilization and everyone from the woods are welcome to join. That means, however, that they must live by rules they didn't create in order to benefit from the civilization they didn't create. This also means that those who live outside of Sherwood Forest, be they master or serf, has little business worrying themselves about the dastardly and pathetic deeds which go down there.

 Eclexia is a sin.

"A little bit of everything adds up to a whole lot of nothing."
-- Cobb's Rule #1

There is probably no such word as 'eclexia', I just made it up, but the sin is real. It is the fatal attraction to novelty and change. It is the mindless sacrifice of tradition at the alter of the new. It is the inability to find satisfaction in the settled.

Eclexia is characterized by a restless antipathy to the established and an overweening desire to get away from it. The eclexic is eclectic to a fault. Their fatal flaw is that once the novelty of the thing has worn off, once it becomes established, their interest and respect fades rapidly.

Eclexia is a sin because it is fundamentally disrespectful of the efforts made by people who bother to study something specific. It acts against collaboration in solving standing problems. It refuses to focus. Thus the eclexic requires some outre personality which allows him to eschew the 'mundane' tasks that are faced by all of us. In that regard, eclexics are dependent on an established alternative subculture - something that allows them to easily be understood as 'cutting edge' or 'radical' even if they are not talented or committed in any way.

 And there is no going back. The Jim Crow era of America is over. But yeah we have stragglers. They are a distraction, and all such reporting on that distraction is overkill.

 There is essentially nothing about black culture that isn't in the public sphere. There is no 'dirty laundry', it's all public domain. Blackfolks have no secrets worth hiding. There are no 'black things' that other people can't understand, there are only contexts that other people (and black people) are too lazy to understand.

 There is no single class of blackfolks. There is no single religion for blackfolks. There is no single 'Black Community'. There is no single political orientation, no single mode of cultural expression, no single dialect and no single region of the country for blackfolks. If you see one, then you are thinking in stereotypes.

 There is no political agenda for black empowerment that will ever have any more force than that of the economy.

 The overwhelming majority of Americans do not want to be racist or be considered racist. There's no money in it, no social benefit in it, and considerable risk.

 There is no separated destiny for African America. As America goes, so goes those with the round nose.

 There is no such thing as 'black on black crime'. There are good guys and there are bad guys. There is no reason to try to invent new social experiments.

 If you don't have a pitchfork, torch or billy club, stay off the streets. There is no such thing as a 'political' street. America is a republic, not a township. Write a blog, write your congressmen, get on public access.

 America is like McDonald's. Everybody knows the menu is big, but their selections generally don't change. In a lifetime of drinking chocolate shakes, how many times do you select strawberry? People like to complain about America, just as they claim McDonald's is bad for you. What is more accurate is that among a wide variety of choices, they are responsible for poor ones, and after all haven't cooked for themselves.

 Every American inherits a Mercedes Benz at birth. It is the infrastructure of the American system. However, it is up on blocks, the wheels are off, and there is no gas in the tank. You can sit behind the wheel in comfort and pretend that you are driving. You can fall asleep in the back seat, roll up the windows and ignore the world. But you have no idea about the real experience of America until you figure out how to get some wheels and mount them, get that car off the blocks and figure out how to get some gas into that engine. If you figure that out, you'll be able to drive 100 miles per hour. But if you don't bother, you walk like everyone else.

The Spousal Unit is my wife.
Boy is my son.
Scholar is my elder daughter.
Sprite is my younger daughter.

Doc is my brother, the LAPD officer
Deet is my brother, the Obama fanatic
Pops, my father, the retired urban studies professor and God fearing Lefty
Moms, my mother, the in-home caregiver and evangelical actress.
Dutz, my dear dreadlocked sister, married to
Mr. T, my piecred college professor brother in law

The Existential Partners: These are men I might very well be had my life taken a different turn or God given me real talent.
    Nulan = Craig Nulan, mad genius, hermetic mystic & ethical scold
    Spence = Lester Spence,  superdad, dance floor dervish & brilliant academic
    EC = E.C. Hopkins, perfect gentleman, philosopher king & citizen soldier
    Iz = Jimi Izrael, urban griot, fearless mensch & starchild personified
    Lee =  ubergeek, industrious ai researcher & black felix unger
    Playa = man's man, lady's man & world class unix hacker
    George = George Kelly, aesthetic adept, perfect host & genuine philanthropist

Fish = Michael Fisher, first order black capitalist & machiavel
FN = Wayne, the Field Negro, the last angry black man
P6 = Himself
DS = Darkstar, destroyer of wishful thinking
BB = Brotherbrown, old friend from the neighborhood

Stretch = drinking buddy, frat brother & firefighter
Mr Jones = family friend, civic patriarch & private banker

1. A little bit of everything adds up to a whole lot of nothing.
2. There is Marriage, and there is everything else.
3. Talk what you know.
4. Civilization is where you put it.
5. Don't second guess people.
6. Always have stretch goals.
7. Never trust anyone whose shoes cost more than your whole day's pay.
8. An enemy is someone who doesn't mind if you fail.
9. It's better to be the King of a small hill, than a Prince at a higher elevation.
10. An early start beats fast running.
11. Perfect is the enemy of good.
12. The Planet is fine.
13. None of your ideas are any good until somebody else can take advantage of them without your permission.
14. People don't have weakenesses so much as they overuse their strengths.
15. If the poor and oppressed knew how to work the system, they wouldn't be poor and oppressed.
16. It is never a good idea to underestimate the intelligence of people in power.

Corollary Wisdom

What do you give a man who has everything? An irresistable opportunity to throw it all away.

The Devil's Advocate only argues because he is disgusted and contemptuous.

No matter where you park your car, the birds will always find it.

How to Handle Black People: A Beginner's Manual

 I am the enemy of empowered ignorance.

 People who spend all of their time jumping on anti-establishment bandwagons are a drag on politics and reason.

 I'm sick and tired of so-called adults who are shocked at the barbarity of human beings. Beware of the phrase "I would like to think that.." It is by definition, wishful thinking. Also watch for "I can't believe that in (insert year hear) we still have..."

 The first thing you will notice about these folks is that they will go anywhere in the planet (but mostly to Sherwood Forest) to come up with a counterexample which satisfies their arguments. You can't drive your SUV because the Bambuti Pygmies of the Ituri Rainforest don't need them. Their multicultured murals may be nice to look at, but their ideas are about as thin as the paint.

 Also known as 'The Element'. Thugs, gangsters, pimps, whores, perverts, derelicts, haters, liars, crooks, con men and their hangers-on and wannabees.

 People who believe that race, ethnicity, country of origin, or sexual preference are a permanent feature of the human soul and should be recognized as such in law and standing are the bitter enemies of humanity itself.

So things hang in the balance for the parties directly invovled and activism on either side ratchets up the attention given. Depending on which way this thing goes, I may have to worry about my niece making a bad name for herself among the cop fraternities of Providence. Sounds like 1966.

If I had my way, I'd just call the whole thing off. Cop families wouldn't have to worry about whether dad has a job, student families wouldn't have to worry about whether son has an education. Everybody gets chewed out and humiliated and all parties recognize how much they need mutual respect. Humiliation this time, fortitude next time.

There is a difference between criticizing the system and dogging the system, and those who might bother to read the DA's report might notice that there are better ways to address the problem than to fire a scapegoated symbolic officer. In fact, Bratton has done so in retraining the force with regards to the standard felony stop. In one scenario, officers will park their cruiser within 10 feet of the back bumper of the suspect's vehicle in such a way that the car will not have enough space to pick up enough speed to be deadly. I know this because my brother's a cop and has been retrained. But I wonder if those who dog the system know that reform has already taken place. I imagine that if they were constructively engaged with the LAPD, they would know such things, but that is not the aim of Tony Muhammad, nor any other unelected mouthpiece of the Coalition.

It must be sad not to know how wrong you are, how politically ineffective are the desires you have been exhorted to champion. It must be frustrating to be in such a state of mind that you only feel you can gain if the police lose. But no matter how sad and frustrating things get for the Coalition of the Damned, they're simply wrong. They have picked a poor set of spokesmen and a poor set {Stanley Miller, Devin Brown, Tookie} of symbolic victims. I hope, for their sake, sooner or later they'll determine that they're on the wrong te

Doc's patience is being tried by knucklehead members of the Coalition of the Damned. Mine too.

Their new prophet of rage, Tony Muhammad, blasted cops for not raising the dead. Well actually, that's not the whole truth, he blasted firemen for not raising the dead. Well, that's not the whole truth either, because Tony Muhammad wanted to raise a ruckus at the funeral of the dead homie in question as an opportunity to get in cops' faces. That's more like it. And so when he and his bodyguards (why do you bring bodyguards to a funeral? ) didn't disperse at the order of the police the conversation went south.

The reasoning behind it has to do with the notion that all racist acts are not equal either in intent or effect. The state does have a compelling interest in insuring that society does not exclude groups but I don't see that it is useful in policing all instances of racist discriminations. For this reason I have come up with three classes of racist offense. These of course are informal and don't stand up to legalistic definitions but you should get the picture:

Class Three - Background Noise
This will include all such insults, slights and disrespect as is generally expected to be found everywhere in this nation. Examples include but are not limited to being ignored by cabbies, flying confederate flags, nazi propaganda, being mistaken for the help, being shown costume jewelry, being asked one's opinion of, or to account for the opinions of the Fungibles, and most nigger calls.

Class Two - Political Intransigence
Class Two racism involves denials of public accomodation or private standing which are not criminal, yet grossly unfair and unjust. Such acts would include imposition of glass cielings, racial profiling, white flight, medical misdiagnosis, educational tracking, false arrest, false imprisonment, racist vois dire, racist jury nullification, denials of service with plausible deniability, any institutional individual or institutional racism which must be tried in civil courts and all such active bigotry one associates with hate groups which fall short of incitement.

Class One - Crime
Theft, criminal defamation, cross burnings (now), hate crimes, murder, rape & all that stuff for which America has never made any extraordinary effort to repair.

Colorblindness cripples. How much it does so becomes apparent when its principles are applied without nuance. The plaintiffs who argued their case before the Supreme Court this week sounded to me to be of the persuasion that there should absolutely be no regard to color. This is a problem.

I'm not close enough to the law to understand what the Constitution directs historically with regard to its ability to percieve race but I do have a principle I think which ought to be applied. I call the idea 'effective resonance'.

he Old School Core Values